Main Aspects of Inland Freight Transport - Coursework Example

Inland Freight Transport Roll No: Teacher: 23rd November 2008 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 BACKGROUNDINFORMATION 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4 Opportunities 4 Problems 5 Contacts with customers 6 Packaging 7 Distribution pattern 8 Overall costs benefits 8 Support services 9 CONCLUSION 10 References 11 BACKGROUND INFORMATION Herne Organics Kent Limited (HGKL), situated in North Kent, are manufacturers, and also into general and trade business. HGKL manufactures biologically twisted vegetables and fruits from a solo fruit farm and from three orchards that are supervised by the headquarters structured on the farm. HGKL is part of Herne Associates, a miniature but flourishing business that expanded from the usual small investment and sequence farm established by Colonel George O’Brian Hill when he got his pension from military service in 1964. After the farm store was devastated due to an epidemic in 1972, further investments were made to improve the business. The ground investment developed by Colonel George and his descendant Mari, included 5 Tenant farms, 11 orchards manufacturing pears and apples in almost equal amounts. The ranches were between 40 and 70 hectares giving a total land investment of 241 hectares. The family management decided to put up the public house and café up for sale to finance development of the farms and orchards. The land investments would turn out to be completely organic and the first organic crops due to increase of documentation are targeted for the summer of 2010. The company has hence decided to change their production strategies in the company. HGKL now wants to expand its services from the local market and reach the national wholesalers. The management has contacts with the large and small businesses nationally. The corporation has to engage itself in the use of the fleets of vehicles to transport the products to various locations countrywide. This proposal discusses how the company would make contacts with the new customers and the mode of the display that will be used to pack the commodities to be delivered to the appropriate clients nationwide. The proposal is also targeted to establish the way, in which the new mode of transacting the business will allow the corporation to save some of the earnings compared to the previous strategies that were initially employed. It will also develop the pattern, which will be used to distribute the products to various customers who are situated nationwide. Lastly, the proposal is targeted to pin point the support that the company will need to facilitate the program effectively. LITERATURE REVIEW To expand the services and to reach the national wholesalers, the company has to develop a fleet of vehicles, which will enable them to reach the goods to their clients at the appropriate time. Since these are perishable goods, timely delivery is essential to keep the wastage to the minimum. Reduction of wastage should be there as most of their goods are perishable. This depends entirely on how the fleet is managed. Fleet of vehicles are the collections of means of transport possessed by any of industry’s organisations or even by the administration of a nation (Mahoney 2006). An organisation can either pay for or even lease in an attempt to facilitate their delivery of services to their customer to their respective destinations. Leasing is a better option than outright buying as it keeps initial capital investments low but it has its own drawbacks. Opportunities Engaging a fleet of vehicles will require a fleet tracking system to be in place which will enable them to track down the drivers in case of any emergency. This will also help the organisation to know the driving habits of their drivers while on the transits, their speed and even when unscheduled stops are made on the way. This implies that the organisation will be intelligent enough to supervise their drivers on the basis of their behaviours in order to facilitate a better procedure of transportation of the goods to the clients (Mahoney 2006). While in case of making use of the services from a third party for delivering products, the organizational management will not be able to assess the drivers personally in terms of their performance. Since the organisation will enrol the fleet pathway system, it will be capable of getting rid of losses that are incurred during the transit of the vehicles in form of the energy, distance and duration taken. Even in case of emergencies like hijacking, it would be possible to track the vehicles. Appropriate technique is essential to keep costs under control thereby providing the organisation with higher returns. Other options are not much helpful as the organisation will be forced to incur all the expenditures that the vehicles bring forth to the organisation. Problems While the costs can be controlled or the techniques can keep track of the fleet, there are certain other problems perceived in the proposal. The organisation will be forced to look for provision of other facilities such as the garage, petrol station and the storage house, to attain the desired profits at the end of the year. In the case of leasing the fleet, this responsibility can be passed on to the service provider but the profits have to be compromised with. In the case of outright purchase, the organisation has to absorb all the costs like petrol station, storage house and garage, which can be seen as problematic. Contacts with customers Since the business is to be expanded nationwide, they will gain access to new customers at the national level. This requires creating a database of the customers with the personal details so that the customers can be facilitated with products needed in due time and without any problem. For delivering the products to a customer location, the following customer details will be recorded (Rushton 2006): Their location, distance and direction from the organisation’s location. Their personal address which should include the zip code and the telephone numbers along with other address details. Their email addresses. Along with the above-mentioned details, some other details will also be needed so that the clients are facilitated with right products at right time. This would ensure delivery of the requested products through competent and reliable ways. Such details include: The description of the product that the client needs. The number of pieces needed. The date on which they require the products to be delivered to them. The mode of payment. The terms of payment. Communication is the essence of any business. The company will have to keep in constant and regular touch with the clients to inquire about further information regarding the delivery of products or if the requirements are unclear at the time of placement of order by the customer. This can also be done through sending email. Other than just inquiring about what the clients need, the organisation should provide updated information to the client about the current products or any new products. Along with just the introduction of the products, there should be details related to the costs and delivery mode of the products, so that the customer can place order for the products in case of need. Packaging Packaging is the most significant point to be considered whenever transporting vegetables and fresh fruits from one location to another. It is in fact important because of the employment of the fleet vehicles as it comprises of long distance transportation to deliver the products to the client. In most cases, the palletized containers, baskets, packets and crates are normally used (Steward 1994). The way the organisation packs the product usually contributes much on the cost of the product in the long run, thus the organisation will have to get the clear view on the influence of the mode of the packaging that they will use. Packaging must ensure protection from the environmental conditions. The packing should be safe, the product should not be harmed and that it should reach the customers in a fresh condition. The organisation is required not only to take care of the customer but also of the retailer and the end consumer because the delivering of fruits and vegetables is a sensitive procedure that requires enough care. Therefore, the packaging of the product should be assisted to preserve the most beneficial environment for the prolonged duration of the manufactured goods’ projection life. To maintain this, the organisation will use the insulation equipments, which will help to prevent the heat and will have the engineered artificial liners that will preserve the favourable mix of the air (Steward 1994). This should also be ensured by facilitating the provision of freezers in the vehicles to allow for better conditioning of the products. Distribution pattern This is a way in which the organisation will organise its distribution of products to the clients. To establish this, the organisation will have to obtain the whole information about all the vehicles in the fleet which will facilitate the organisation to know about which vehicle should be used on which direction due to which, customers of specific areas will be facilitated with quick deliveries (Rushton 2006). Thus the organisation will be distributing the products to the clients, starting with the nearest location to the farthest and this will depend on the urgency that is required by the customers in order to ask for the delivery of products to a specific destination. Overall costs benefits To be capable to attain this, the organisation will have to streamline its fleet of vehicles in to a proper fleet system. This will help them in cutting down the expenditures that they may be facing whenever the vehicle is on the road. The expenses may be in terms of the time wastage, energy and the maintenance of the vehicles. While packing their fruits and the other products, the organisation will have to use the standardized containers. This is required because it enables the organisation in reducing the packaging costs of the commodities and thus allows the organisation to save more money for the company (Steward 1994). The packaging should be done effectively so that the costs involved in the wastage of space and products can be cut down. There should be availability of more space and the containers of products should be arranged in a manner which accommodates more products in less space. The transportation costs can also be reduced by managing space for products. It should be ensured that the vehicles that are employed for the delivery of fruits and vegetables should have freezers to freeze the products, so that they cannot be spoiled on the way. In this manner, the wastage costs can be reduced. Therefore, to increase the profit, the organisation should be able to pack the fruits and vegetables in such arrangements which require fewer visits for transportation and less spacing. Support services To facilitate this new approach of expansion of the organisation, the company will have to attain some facilities and support from other organisations to be able to meet its targets. Some of these facilities will include: Provision of the garage at the farm yard, which will be used for the maintenance of the vehicles on each and every day to ensure that they operate efficiently. They will have to attain their own petrol stations for fuelling their vehicles; this will help them to cut down their costs. They will need to have the provision of storage space, which will be used to store the products ready to be transported to the clients. CONCLUSION It can thus be concluded that the company proposes to use its own fleet with the appropriate fleet tracking system. This is considered to be a better option than engaging third party services for delivery. It is expected that this will be more helpful for the development and expansion of the organisation. This is because it would assist the organisation to be proficient in order to track down their vehicles while on the transit and to take intelligent decisions in case of emergency situations. It will also help the organisation to recover their goods that might be at risk of being hijacked on the way to the clients’ destination. The support services would be ensured as far as packaging is concerned. Other facilities would also be taken care of like fleet maintenance, storage space and fuelling of vehicles. It is expected that such a inland freight transportation system would help the company in its expansion as a nationwide wholesaler and retailer. The proposal is considered appropriate for implementation and relevant to the objectives of the organization. References Mahoney, P. (2006). Opportunities of Fleet Tracking System. Retrieved on 19th November 2008 from Rushton, A., Croucher P and Baker P. (2006). Handbook of Logistics & Distribution Management. Kogan Page. Amazon.com. Steward, D.R. (1994). Standardization of the Transportation Devices: Spanking new Fruits and Vegetables. London: McGraw Hill. Read More